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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is comic about the turn of phrase "she withstood the attack of the ethereal mildness" (334)?
(a) The contradiction in the terms "attack" and "ethereal mildness."
(b) The understatement of the danger.
(c) The idea that "mildness" could be "ethereal."
(d) The surprise ending to a well-known phrase.

2. Where Mr. Coulson is sitting, two main smells are "battling": the smell of flowers and what other smell?
(a) Mr. Coulson's strong cologne.
(b) Mr. Coulson's uneaten breakfast.
(c) The musty smell of Mr. Coulson's room.
(d) The medicine on Mr. Coulson's skin.

3. Which of the following literary techniques is used in the title "The Marry Month of May"?
(a) Synecdoche.
(b) Paraprosdokian.
(c) Paronomasia.
(d) Anaphora.

4. When Mr. Coulson complains about the cold, what is his servant's response?
(a) He calls for Mrs. Widdup.
(b) He shuts the windows.
(c) He laughs.
(d) He offers to investigate the problem.

5. What is clear in the first interaction between Mr. Coulson, Miss Coulson, and Mrs. Widdup?
(a) Both Mr. Coulson and Mrs. Widdup are aware that Miss Coulson will disapprove of them having a relationship.
(b) Miss Coulson has no idea that Mr. Coulson has romantic intentions toward Mrs. Widdup.
(c) Mrs. Widdup is much more intelligent than she seems at first.
(d) Mr. Coulson is used to having to trick Miss Coulson in order to get his way.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator call the "most potent weapons of insidious May" (334)?

2. When Miss Coulson stands thinking at the window, to what insects does she mentally compare Mr. Coulson and Mrs. Widdup?

3. What is implied by the number of days for which Miss Coulson orders extra ice?

4. The story opens with the word "prithee" (332). What does this word mean in this context?

5. What is the first indication that Mrs. Widdup does not listen carefully?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the sound of the overturned chair after Mr. Coulson confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup?

2. What is Miss Coulson's plan to head off her father's budding romance?

3. How do words like "yaller" and "lawsy" in Mrs. Widdup's dialogue characterize her?

4. When Mr. Coulson finally confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup, what drawback to himself does he acknowledge, and what advantage does he say balances this drawback out?

5. Explain the titular allusion and the allusion to "the poet" in the first sentence of the story.

6. How does O. Henry characterize the month of May?

7. What is the thematic significance of the olfactory image of the city in springtime?

8. What rhetorical purposes does O. Henry accomplish with his introduction of Mr. Coulson through a list of things that he "has," like gout, money, and a daughter?

9. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).

10. How does O. Henry use verbal misunderstandings to characterize Mrs. Widdup when she first appears in Mr. Coulson's room?

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